A Seminar Report on

GEO-THERMAL ENERGY
Submitted in the partial fulfilment of the requirement
for the 7th Semester course 11 ME7DC SEM
BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING
In
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Submitted by:
BHARATH.S
1BM06ME021

Guided by:
V.S.MUDAKAPPANAVAR
Assistant Professor

Department of Mechanical Engineering

B.M.S College of Engineering
Autonomous College under VTU
Accredited by NBA. Approved by AICTE
BANGALORE 560019

November – 2011
 DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

BMS COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

BANGALORE-560019

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the seminar entitled

GEO-THERMAL ENERGY
Is submitted in the partial fulfilment of the requirement for the 7th
Semester course 11 ME7DC SEM

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING

In

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

BHARATH.S
USN: 1BM06ME021

Guided by: Dr. K. GURUPRASAD

V.S.MUDAKAPPANAVAR Prof. and Head of the Department
Assistant Professor Department of Mechanical Engineering
BMSCE, Bangalore
 DECLARATION

I , BHARATH.S bearing USN 1BM06ME021,of VII semester B.E,

Department of Mechanical Engineering do hereby declare that seminar
report entitled "GEO-THERMAL ENERGY" has been compiled by me
under the esteemed guidance and supervision of
V.S.MUDAKAPPANAVAR , Assistant Professor, BMSCE, Bangalore. This
work and any part of this work have not been submitted anywhere for
the award of any degree.

Place: Bangalore Signature

Date: BHARATH.S

(1BM06ME021)
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The satisfaction and euphoria that accomplished the successful completion of any
task would be incomplete without the people who made it possible, whose constant
guidance and encouragement crowned out effort with success.

I take this opportunity to express my deep sense of gratitude and respect

to our guide V.S.MUDAKAPPANAVAR , Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical
Engineering, BMSCE, for his valuable guidance. I am greatly indebted to his help, which
has been of immense value and has played a major role in bringing this to a successful
completion.

I my heartfelt thanks to Dr. G.GIRIDHAR, Seminar coordinator, BMS college of

Engineering for his help and encouragement.

I express heartfelt thanks to Dr.K.GURUPRASAD, Professor and Head of

Department of Mechanical Engineering, BMS college of Engineering for the help and
encouragement.

Heartfelt thanks to Dr.K.MALLIKHARJUNA BABU, Principal, BMS College of

Engineering for the facilities provided and encouragement.

I wish to express sincere thanks to all the teaching and non-teaching staff,
Department of Mechanical Engineering, B.M.S. College of engineering, for extending
necessary assistance without which this seminar would not have been possible. I would
like to thank my families and friend for their constant support and encouragement
throughout this work.
ABSTRACT

Recent national focus on the value of increasing our supply of indigenous,

renewable energy underscores the need for reevaluating all alternatives,
particularly those that are large and welldistributed nationally. This analysis will
help determine how we can enlarge and diversify the portfolio of options we
should be vigorously pursuing. One such option that is often ignored is geothermal
energy, produced from both conventional hydrothermal and Enhanced (or
engineered) Geothermal Systems (EGS). An 18-member assessment panel was
assembled in September 2005 to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of
EGS becoming a major supplier of primary energy for U.S. base-load generation
capacity by 2050. This report documents the work of the panel at three separate
levels of detail. The first is a Synopsis, which provides a brief overview of the
scope, motivation, approach, major findings, and recommendations of the panel. At
the second level, an Executive Summary reviews each component of the study,
providing major results and findings. The third level provides full documentation
in eight chapters, with each detailing the scope, approach, and results of the
analysis and modeling conducted in each area.
 Contents

Certificate
Declaration
Acknowledgement
Abstract

1. Introduction

2. Advantages of Geo-thermal energy

3. Present status of non- convectional energy resources in India

4. Resources definition

5. World geothermal energy status

6. Technology and Resource Type

7. Power Generation Technology

7.1 High Temperature Resources

i)Flash Steam Power Plant
ii) Binary Cycle Power Plants
iii) Combined Cycle (Flash and Binary)
7.2 Medium Temperature Resources

8. Direct Use Technology

9. Technological Issues with Geothermal Developments

10. Application of Chemical techniques in geothermal exploration

11. Silica and Cations as geothermometers

11.1 Silica geothermometer

11.2 Silica- enthalpy diagram

12. Cation geothermometers

13. Indian Geothermal Provinces

14. Reference
 Geo-thermal Energy
1. INTRODUCTION

This paper gives an overview of the present status of non-conventional

energy sources of India, world geothermal resources, its advantages over other
conventional energy sources, various uses and technologies involved in utilizing
this energy source. Exploration methods used to assess the resources are explained
in brief. Various geothermal provinces of India and their power generating /direct
use potential are described in detail.

2. ADVANTAGES OF GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

Geothermal energy is a domestic energy resource with cost, reliability and

environmental advantages over conventional energy sources. It contributes both to
energy supply, with electrical power generation and direct-heat uses.

For generation of electricity, hot water is brought from the underground

reservoir to the surface through production wells, and is flashed to steam in special
vessels by release of pressure. The steam is separated from the liquid and fed to a
turbine engine, which turns a generator. Spent geothermal fluid is injected back
into peripheral parts of the reservoir to help maintain reservoir pressure. In the
absence of steam, heat from hot water is extracted through a secondary fluid and
the high pressure vapour from the secondary fluid is utilized to run the turbine.

If the reservoir is to be used for direct-heat application, the geothermal water

is usually fed to a heat exchanger and the heat thus extracted is used for home
heating, greenhouse, vegetable drying and a wide variety of other small scale
industries. Hot water at temperatures less than 120 o C can be used for this
purpose. Further, the spent hot water, after generating electricity can also be used
for direct application.

As a result of today's geothermal production, consumption of exhaustible

fossil fuels is offset, along with the release of acid-rain and greenhouse gases that
are caused by fossil-fuel use. Systems for use of geothermal energy have proven to
be extremely reliable and flexible. Geothermal electric power plants are on line
97% of the time, whereas nuclear plants average only 65% and coal plants only
75% on-line time. Geothermal plants are modular, and can be installed in
increments as needed. Because they are modular, then can be transported
conveniently to any site. Both baseline and peaking power can be generated.
Construction time can be as little as 6 months for plants in the range 0.5 to 10 MW
and as little as 2 years for clusters of plants totalling 250 MW or more.

The competing goals of increased energy production for worldwide social

development and of mitigating release of atmosphere-polluting gases are not
compatible using today's fuel mix, which relies heavily on coal and petroleum.
Development of geothermal energy has a large net positive impact on the
environment compared with development of conventional energy
sources. Geothermal power plants have sulphur-emissions rates that average only a
few percent of those from fossil-fuel alternatives. The newest generation of
geothermal power plants emits only ~135 gm of carbon (as carbon dioxide) per
megawatt-hour (MW-hr) of electricity generated. This figure compares with 128
kg /MW-hr of carbon for a plant operating on natural gas (methane) and 225
kg/MW-hr of carbon for a plant using bituminous coal. Nitrogen oxide emissions
are much lower in geothermal power plants than in fossil power plants. Nitrogen-
oxides combine with hydrocarbon vapours in the atmosphere to produce ground-
level ozone, a gas that causes adverse health effects and crop losses as well as
smog. There are other environmental advantages to geothermal energy.
Geothermal power plants require very little land, taking up only a fraction of that
needed by other energy sources. Thus emission of CO2 and SO2 by geothermal
power plants is far less compared with conventional fossil fuel based power plants
(Figure 1).

Figure1. CO2 and SO2 emission by geothermal and

conventional power plants.

3. PRESENT STATUS OF NON-CONVENTIONAL ENERGY
RESOURCES IN INDIA:

The estimated power shortage in India in the next five years will be 43,000
MW while the total potential of non-conventional energy is about 50,000 MW.
The power production status of non-conventional energy in India is shown in
Table 1(Chandrasekharam, 2000a):

Table 1. Power production status of non-conventional energy in India

Renewable Power Potential Achieved

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wind Power 20,000 MW 1,000 MW

Small Hydro Power 10,000 MW 172 MW

Biomass 20,000 MW 141 MW

Solar photo-voltic Power 20 MW/sq.km 810 KW

Geothermal energy is not included here, although it has an estimated potential of

about 10,000 MW (Ravi Shankar, 1996). The IPPs (Independent Power Producers)
are not aware of this potential and the country is not keen in developing this source
due to the availability of 190 billion tones of recoverable coal resources which is
supporting coal based power projects and hampering the healthy growth of non-
conventional energy program.
 Excessive use of this source without adopting strategies to mitigate its
effects will have deteriorating effect on the quality of human life. In another
decade emission of CO2, SO2 and Nx will exceed 1500 million tones, 1900 kilo
tones and 1200 kilo tones respectively ( World Bank Report 1999). This means
CO2 emissions will be 775 million metric tones per year as compared to 1000
million metric tones per year produced in the entire European Union! No doubt
the cost of electricity produced from coal is far less expensive compared with other
fuels. The present day cost of one unit of power is less than a rupee in the case of
coal based power while liquid fuel based power costs about Rs. 2 per unit (Mehta,
1999) and hydro power costs about Rs. 1.50 (World Bank Report, 1999). But the
expenditure spent to meet the consequences (like disposal of fly ash; treating the
coal with high ash content etc) is high which automatically increases one rupee a
unit to several rupees. The ash content in Indian coal is about 45% and the annual
production of fly ash is about 75 million tons and it may cross 100 million mark
very shortly. (Chandrasekharam, 2000). Only 5% of this ash is being utilized at
present.

The reasons for low targets (Table 1) achieved through non-conventional

energy sources are many. For example, solar photo-voltaic (SPV) and solar thermal
are far less economically attractive than conventional technologies for, the current
estimated cost of SPV modules are around $ 4 to 5 Wp (peak watt). Assuming the
cost to decline by 50% in future, the estimated cost would be around $2.5 Wp
which is highly uncompetitive compared with $ 1.05 for other conventional
sources. In the case of wind power, operational problems in matching demand and
supply exists since the wind velocity is seasonal (World Bank Report 1999). The
estimated cost of power produced using geothermal resources is less than Rs. 2
/kWh (Entingh et al., 1994).
In future India has to fall in line with other countries in controlling emission of
CO2, SO2 and Nx into the atmosphere and thus has to depend on cheap,
environmentally clean geothermal energy resources.

4. Resources definition:

Geothermal energy, in the broad sense, is the heat in the earth and released
by conduction at an average heat flux of 60 mW/m2. The four prerequisites
necessary to exploit geothermal energy are (Economides and Ungemach, 1987):

a). A heat source which could be a magma body, or a simple hot rock at depth, b)
Heat carrier fluid, c) Permeable or fractured rock acting as a reservoir and d) Cap
rocks providing an impermeable and insulating cover

The most obviously usable geothermal resources require convective heat

transfer i.e. presence of fluid. This occurs at a limited number of locations. When
ever conduction alone prevails (any where) heat recovery requires that a fluid be
forced through a large fractured heat exchange area to sweep the energy stored in
the rocks at depth. This is basically the concept of hot dry rock technology, which
is very promising. Hydrothermal resources are classified according to the specific
enthalpy of the fluid. Waters with temperatures between 30 - 120oC are called low
enthalpy resources (0.03 to 0.4 MJ/kg); Waters with temperatures above 120 oC are
termed as high enthalpy fluids (0.5 to 3 MJ/kg)

Location of geothermal provinces is dictated by the geodynamic model of

the earth's crust, known as the global plate tectonics. This theory accounts for the
most of the geodynamic processes affecting the earth's crust. These geodynamic
processes include subduction, subsidence, uplift, fracturing etc. These occurrences
result in associated geothermal features such as the distribution of heat flow, active
tectonics, volcanism and hydrothermal convection.

Table 2. World Geothermal energy production

Country 1990 (MW electricity 1999 (MW electricity

installed) installed)
USA 2775 2850
Philippines 891 1848
Italy 545 769
Mexico 700 753
Indonesia 145 590
Japan 215 530
New Zealand 283 345
Iceland 45 140
Costa Rica 0 120
El Salvador 95 105
Nicaragua 70 70
Kenya 45 45
China 19 32
Guatemala 0 29
Turkey 20 20.4
Totals installed
electrical
5867 8246
generating
capacity

5. World geothermal energy status

Currently there are an estimated 12,000 MW of direct use and over 8,000
MW of generating capacity in geothermal resources world-wide. To put
geothermal generation into perspective, this generating capacity is about 0.4% of
the World total installed generating capacity. The USA, Philippines, Italy, Mexico,
Iceland Indonesia, Japan and New Zealand are the largest users of geothermal
energy resources (both direct and indirect). Table 2 shows the location of present
electric power generation from geothermal energy in order of size per country. The
1999 capacity of 8246MW electricity was a 40% increase from the capacity
installed in 1990.

Other countries with less than 20 MW generation are: Argentina, Australia

Ethiopia, France (Guadeloupe) ,Greece, Portugal(Azores), Russia, Thailand
(World Geothermal Congress, 2000). Currently geothermal resources in over 30
countries provide directly used heat capacity of over 12,000 MW. These countries
include: Algeria, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Denmark, England, France,
Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan,
Latvia, Nicaragua, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia,
Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand and Turkey.
 The majority of the earlier geothermal plants were funded and operated by
National Power agencies around the world with the exception of California where
the development of the Geysers geothermal field was carried out by privately
funded utility companies. With the recent international trend towards de-regulation
in the power industry, private developers have become more directly involved in
both resource assessment and development. This has been particularly so in
Indonesia and the Philippines.

The world map (Fig. 2) illustrates where geothermal resources are currently
being utilised. The red dots indicate power generation which includes small scale,
rural development as well as large scale power plants. Direct use is also applicable
to the red dots. The blue dots indicate both high temperature and medium to low
temperature resources where direct use of the geothermal heat is being applied.
The yellow dots indicate World Bank funded projects, and the green dots indicate
Hot Dry Rock (HDR) research is underway.
 Figure 2. Geothermal energy utilization map of the world

Flash steam plants totally dominate the marketplace, but over the past ten years
many smaller scale binary cycle plants have been installed while several combined
(flash steam/binary plants) have been installed. The majority of the World's
geothermal power stations are base load stations meaning that they operate 24
hours a day for 365 days. Allowing for a load factor of about 80% and an average
steam cost of Rs. 2 per kWh geothermal power.

6. Technology and Resource Type

Geothermal resources vary in temperature from 30-350 o C, and can either be

dry, mainly steam, a mixture of steam and water or just liquid water. In order to
extract geothermal heat from the earth, water is the transfer medium. Naturally
occurring groundwater is available for this task in most places but more recently
technologies are being developed to even extract the energy from hot dry rock
resources. The temperature of the resource is a major determinant of the type of
technologies required to extract the heat and the uses to which it can be put. The
Table 3 lists the basic technologies normally utilised according to resource
temperature.

Table 3. Basic technology commonly used

Reservoir Temperature Reservoir Common Use Technology commonly

Fluid chosen
High Temperature Water or Power Flash Steam; Combined
Steam Generation (Flash and Binary) Cycle
>220oC
Direct Use Direct Fluid Use Heat
Exchangers Heat Pumps
Intermediate Water Power Binary Cycle
Temperature Generation
Direct Fluid Use; Heat
100-220oC Direct Use Exchangers ; Heat
Pumps
.
Low Temperature Water Direct Use Direct Fluid Use; Heat
Exchangers; Heat Pumps
50-150oC
7. Power Generation Technology

7.1 High Temperature Resources

High temperature geothermal reservoirs containing water and/or steam can

provide steam to directly drive steam turbines and electrical generation plant. More
recently developed binary power plant technologies enables more of the heat from
the resource to be utilised for power generation. A combination of conventional
flash and binary cycle technology is becoming increasingly popular.

High temperature resources commonly produce either steam, or a mixture of

steam and water from the production wells. The steam and water is separated in a
pressure vessel (Separator), with the steam piped to the power station where it
drives one or more steam turbines to produce electric power. The separated
geothermal water (brine) is either utilised in a binary cycle type plant to produce
more power, or is disposed of back into the reservoir down deep (injection) wells.
The following is a brief description of each of the technologies most commonly
used to utilise high temperature resources for power generation.

Flash Steam Power Plant

This is the most common type of geothermal power plant. The illustration
(Fig. 3) below shows the principal elements of this type of plant. The steam, once
it has been separated from the water, is piped to the powerhouse where it is used to
drive the steam turbine. The steam is condensed after leaving the turbine, creating
a partial vacuum and thereby maximizing the power generated by the turbine-
generator. The steam is usually condensed either in a direct contact condenser, or a
heat exchanger type condenser. In a direct contact condenser the cooling water
from the cooling tower is sprayed onto and mixes with the steam. The condensed
steam then forms part of the cooling water circuit, and a substantial portion is
subsequently evaporated and is dispersed into the atmosphere through the cooling
tower. Excess cooling water called blow down is often disposed of in shallow
injection wells. As an alternative to direct contact condensers shell and tube type
condensers are sometimes used, as is shown in the schematic below. In this type of
plant, the condensed steam does not come into contact with the cooling water, and
is disposed of in injection wells.

Fig. 3. Single Flash Power Plant

Typically, flash condensing geothermal power plants vary in size from 5 MW to

over 100 MW. Depending on the steam characteristics, gas content, pressures, and
power plant design, between 6000 kg and 9000 kg of steam each hour is required
to produce each MW of electrical power. Small power plants (less than 10 MW)
are often called well head units as they only require the steam of one well and are
located adjacent to the well on the drilling pad in order to reduce pipeline costs.
Often such well head units do not have a condenser, and are called backpressure
units. They are very cheap and simple to install, but are inefficient (typically 10-20
tonne per hour of steam for every MW of electricity) and can have higher
environmental impacts.

Binary Cycle Power Plants

In reservoirs where temperatures are typically less than 220 o C. but greater
than 100o C binary cycle plants are often utilised. The illustration (Fig. 4) shows
the principal elements of this type of plant. The reservoir fluid (either steam or
water or both) is passed through a heat exchanger which heats a secondary working
fluid (organic) which has a boiling point lower than 100o C. This is typically an
organic fluid such as Isopentane, which is vaporised and is used to drive the
turbine. The organic fluid is then condensed in a similar manner to the steam in the
flash power plant described above, except that a shell and tube type condenser
rather than direct contact is used. The fluid in a binary plant is recycled back to the
heat exchanger and forms a closed loop. The cooled reservoir fluid is again re-
injected back into the reservoir.

Fig. 4. Binary Cycle Power Plant

Binary cycle type plants are usually between 7 and 12 % efficient, depending on
the temperature of the primary (geothermal) fluid. Binary Cycle plant typically
vary in size from 500 kW to 10 MW. The curves (Fig. 5) give an indication of the
electrical power output from a binary plant over a range of flows and geothermal
reservoir temperatures.

Fig. 5. Power From Moderate - Low Temperature Fluids

Combined Cycle (Flash and Binary)

Combined Cycle power plants are a combination of conventional steam

turbine technology and binary cycle technology. By combining both technologies,
higher overall utilization efficiencies can be gained, as the conventional steam
turbine is more efficient at generation of power from high temperature steam, and
the binary cycle from the lower temperature separated water. In addition, by
replacing the condenser-cooling tower cooling system in a conventional plant by a
binary plant, the heat available from condensing the spent steam after it has left the
steam turbine can be utilized to produce more power.

7.2 Medium Temperature Resources

Medium temperature resources are normally hot water with temperatures

ranging from 100o C to 220o C. The most common technology for utilising such
resources for power generation is the binary cycle technology. This technology is
described above under high temperature resources.

8. Direct Use Technology

Direct use technologies are where geothermal heat is used directly rather
than for power generation and are built around the extraction of heat from
relatively low temperature geothermal resources, generally of less than 150o C.
Because geothermal heat is non-transportable, (except short distances by fluid
pipeline) any applications must generally be sited within10 km or less of the
resource. For many resources, the relatively low temperatures and/or pressures in
the reservoirs means that they have insufficient energy and/or pressure differences
to naturally carry the fluids to the surface and pumps are frequently used (either
down-hole or at the surface).
 The type of technology selected for utilising geothermal heat for direct use
applications is dependent on the nature of the geothermal fluid and the type of
direct use planned. In many direct use applications, the geothermal fluid cannot be
used directly, such as in drying processes or where clean steam or hot water is
necessary, as geothermal fluid often contains chemical contaminants. In such cases
heat exchangers are utilised to extract the heat from the hot geothermal fluid and
transfer it to either clean water, or in the case of drying processes, to air.

There are two main types of heat exchangers commonly used. They are plate
heat exchangers and shell and tube. The heat exchanger technology employed in
the geothermal industry is the same as is commonly used over a wide range of
industries where heat exchangers are utilised.

Commonly used heat pump technology can also be employed in order to utilise
geothermal heat for air conditioning and refrigeration applications.

9. Technological Issues with Geothermal Developments

Whether geothermal energy is utilized for power production or for direct use
applications, there are issues in geothermal utilization that often have technical
implications.
Geothermal fluids often contain significant quantities of gases such as hydrogen
sulphide as well as dissolved chemicals and can sometimes be acidic. Because of
this, corrosion, erosion and chemical deposition may be issues, which require
attention at the design stage and during operation of the geothermal project. Well
casings and pipelines can suffer corrosion and /or scale deposition, and turbines,
especially blades can suffer damage leading to higher maintenance costs and
reduced power output.
 However, provided careful consideration of such potential problems is made
at the design stage, there are a number of technological solutions available. Such
potential problems can be normally overcome by a combination of utilising
corrosion resistant materials, careful control of brine temperatures, the use of steam
scrubbers and occasionally using corrosion inhibitors.

Provided such readily available solutions are employed, geothermal projects

generally have a very good history of operational reliability. Geothermal power
plants for example, can boast of high capacity factors (typically 85-95%)

With all projects of significant size, geothermal projects are developed

through a series of logical stages, which may be summarized in the Geothermal
Development Flow Chart (Fig. 6). This figure shows the various stages in a
THermal project. Decisions to proceed to the next stage are normally made
progressively through out the project.

.
10. Application of Chemical techniques in geothermal exploration

The application of chemical techniques has become an integral part of any

geothermal exploration programme. During the pre-drilling stages of
exploration, geochemistry of thermal waters and gases may provide
information on deep conditions and processes not obtainable by geological or
geophysical techniques. The dissolved constituents in the thermal waters can
be grouped into two major groups i.e. a) chemically, non-reactive and b)
chemically reactive groups. The first group may be called tracers and the
second, the geo-indicators.

The tracers, once enter the fluid phase, ideally remain unchanged, providing
a tag allowing their origin to be traced back to their. These include noble gases
like He and Ar and other conservative elements like Cl, Li, B, Rb, Cs and N2.

Geo-indicators are reactive species, responding to changes in their

environment (especially temperature and type of rock with which the fluids
interact) in a controlled and well understood manner. These include Na, K, Mg,
Ca and SiO2,which take part in temperature dependent reactions with Al-
silicate rocks which house geothermal systems, and H2, H2S, CH4 and
CO2 which are involved in temperature -pressure dependent redox reactions
within them or redox systems of the rock phase such as FeII/FeIII reaction.
11. Silica and Cations as geothermometers

Water geothermometers are classified into two groups i.e. 1) based on

temperature dependent variations in solubility of individual minerals and 2) based
on temperature dependent exchange reactions which fix the ratios of certain
dissolved constituents (Fournier, 1991). The silica minerals are ideal members
under group 1 while other cations such as Ca, Mg, Na and K are ideal under group
2. Temperature estimation based on group 2 members require evaluation of
activity coefficients for two or more dissolved species in order to calculate the
temperature at which solution-mineral equilibrium was last attained. The
calculation of activity coefficients must take into account the total composition of
the fluid and the result vary as a function of temperature. Simple techniques for
estimating the reservoir temperatures based on silica and cations are described
here.

11.1 Silica geothermometer

The solubility of silica mineral decreases drastically and linearly as

temperature decreases below 340o C. If temperature vs silica concentration in
thermal waters are plotted, they define a straight line within this temperature limits.
Similarly the dissolved silica in liquid after steam separation (90 - 250o C) also
defines a similar line. The equations for such straight lines results in the following
equations:

Quartz -no steam loss to C = ( 1309/5.19 - log S ) - 273.15 (1)

Quartz -max. steam loss to C = ( 1522/5.75 - log S ) - 273.15 (2)

The above two equations are extensively been used for calculating
geothermometer temperatures in the range of 100 - 250o C. However (Fournier,
1991).

11.2 Silica- enthalpy diagram

It is useful to use enthalpy instead of temperature in the silica- temperature

diagrams to estimate the reservoir temperatures. This is because, the combined heat
contents (enthalpies) of two types of waters at different temperatures are conserved
when they mix, thus the dilution effect is eliminated here. Enthalpy-silica diagrams
can be used to correct silica concentrations for adiabatic cooling with single stage
steam loss at any temperature.

12. Cation geothermometers

Cation geothermometers are widely used to calculate the reservoir

temperatures from surface thermal waters. This technique is based on ion exchange
reactions with temperature dependent equilibrium constants. An example is the
exchange of Na and K between co-existing alkali feldspars:

Na Al Si3 O8 + K = K Al Si3 O8

The equilibrium constant K eq for the above reaction is

[K Al Si 3 O 8] [Na]
K eq =

[Na Al Si3 O8] [ K ] 3

The above equation can be written as

K eq = Na / K 4

Similar equation can be written for monovalent and divalent ions such as K and
Mg , thus

K eq = K / Ö Mg

The variation of K eq with temperature can be obtained by an integrated form of

van't Hoff equation

Log K eq = 1 Ho / 2.303 RT + C

Where 1 Ho is the enthalpy of the reaction, T is temperature in Kelvin, R is the gas

constant and C is a constant of integration.

Since 1 Ho changes little with temperature in the range of 0 to 300o C, a plot of log
Na/K versus temperature will approximately be a straight line. Equations for
straight line, like that develpped for silica geothermometery have been proposed by
several workers and two most widely used equations are given below:

Na - K to C = 1217 / 1.483 + log (Na/K) - 273.15 5

Na - K to C = 1390 / 1.750 + log (Na/K) - 273.15 6

 Equation 5 is proposed by Fournier (1983) and 6 is proposed by Giggenbach
et al., (1983). Besides these two, several other equations such as Na-K-Ca and K-
Ca, Na -Ca and K- Mg have also been proposed and are in use. Giggenbach
(1988) evolved a new geothermometer where both K/Na (tkn) and K/Mg (tkm)
geothermometers are combined. This geothermometer, represented in the form a
figure by Giggenbach (1988) is wide used for the above purpose. Selecting suitable
thermal water samples is very essential in estimating reservoir temperatures using
geochemical thermometers.

13. Indian Geothermal Provinces

In India nearly 400 thermal springs occur, distributed in seven geothermal

provinces. These provinces include The Himalayas: Sohana: West coast; Cambay:
Son-Narmada-Tapi (SONATA): Godavari and Mahanadi. These springs are
perennial and their surface temperature range from 37 to 90o C with a cumulative
surface discharge of over 1000 l/m. Figure 7 shows the location of these
geothermal provinces. These provinces are associated with major rifts or
subduction tectonics and registered high heat flow and high geothermal gradient
(Figure 7) For example the heat flow values and thermal gradients of these
provinces are 468 mW/m2; 234o C/km (Himalayas); 93 mW/m2; 70o C/km
(Cambay); 120 - 260 mW/m2; 60-90o C/km (SONATA); 129 mW/m2; 59o C/km
(west coast); 104 mW/m2; 60o C/km (Godavari) and 200 mW/m2; 90o C/km
(Bakreswar, Bihar). The reservoir temperature estimated using the above described
geothermometers are 120o C (west coast), 150o C (Tattapani) and 200o C
(Cambay). The depth of the reservoir in these provinces is at a depth of about 1 to
2 km (Chandrasekharam, 2000; Minissale et al., 2000 and references therein:
seeweb : dchandra.hypermart.net). These geothermal systems are liquid
dominated and steam dominated systems prevail only in Himalayan and Tattapani
geothermal provinces. The issuing temperature of water at Tattapani is 90o C; at
Puga (Himalaya) is 98o C and at Tuwa (Gujarat) is 98o C. The power generating
capacity of these thermal springs is about 10,000 MW (Ravi Shanker, 1996). These
are, as mentioned above, medium enthalpy resources. From the point of power
generation technology described above in Part I, these resources can be utilized
effectively to generate power using binary cycle method (Fig. 4). Since majority
of these springs are located in rural India, these springs can support small scale
industries in such areas. Dehydrated vegetables and fruits have a potential export
market and India being an agricultural country, this industry is best suited for India
conditions. An example of the cost involved in dehydration of fruits using
conventional heat and geothermal heat, from Central America, is given in the
following table 4. This gives an idea about the economic potential of geothermal
resource.

Table 4. showing the cost of dehydrated fruits using conventional and

geothermal heat

CAPACI
PRODUCT TY TIME HEAT COST. HEAT COST
(hour GEOTHERMAL CONVENTIONAL
(Kg) s) SYSTEM SYSTEM

PINEAPPLE 800 18 900 5000

APPLE
(SLICES) 700 16 800 4500
APPLE
(CUBES) 900 16 800 4500
BANANA 800 24 1300 6000
PLANTAIN 700 30 1500 6500

Courtesy: M/s Eco-Fruit Agro Industry,Gautimala, Central America (Cost in

rupees).
 References

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